Houston, we have a protest: An estimated 35,000 protestors braved frigid temperatures to rally at the White House on Sunday, in a mass outpouring of opposition to the proposed Keystone pipeline, which would carry oil down the center of the U.S. from Canada's Tar Sands to the Gulf of Mexico. The President, alas, wasn't at home, having flown to Houston Florida for a Presidents' Day golfing vacation with a wealthy Houston donor, but presumably got caught up from watching CNN at the 19th hole. (Really, White House scheduling staff? Houston? The Shangri-la of the American oil industry? Who's in charge of handling the optics up there?) Washington Post
Ready for his close-up: One of those in attendance at yesterday's rally was Thomas Steyer, a billlionaire hedge fund manager whose boundless enthusiasm for the task of fighting climate change, combined with his considerable business clout, has helped turn him into one of the movement's key players. “I feel like the guy in the movie who goes into the diner and says, ‘There are zombies in the woods and they’re eating our children,’" says Steyer -- who does, we admit, have a certain Bill Pullman-esque quality about him. (Or is it Bill Paxton? We can never tell those two apart. This guy looks kinda like one, or maybe both, of them.) Washington Post
Bearly awake: Do bears really hibernate -- or are they just really, really groggy? Come on, what kind of question is that? Does a bear s--- in the woods? (Actually, he doesn't! "A bedded-down bear goes all winter long without defecating even once. They also forego urination.") The grizzly truth about ursine winter sleeping habits, finally uncovered. Slate
A reptile dysfunction: According to the Zoological Society of London, nearly one in five of the world’s 10,000 different species of reptiles are headed for extinction. TIME
Red meat for vegetarian crowd: The human taste for meat "has resulted in a massive expansion of intensively farmed livestock" that has "diverted vast quantities of grain from human to animal consumption, requiring intensive use of fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides" and polluting our water and air, according to a United Nations Environmental Program report issued last week. "The run-off from these chemicals is creating dead zones in the seas, causing toxic algal blooms and killing fish, while some are threatening bees, amphibians and sensitive ecosystems." Guardian
Liquid asset: What do the world's wealthiest corporate interests do when they've grabbed all the available land that money can buy? They start grabbing water, of course. (We've tried grabbing water: the stuff ran right through our fingers. Apparently it works if you're super-rich.) Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Saltwater daffy?: In California, seawater delsalination "dreamers" are finally getting the plant they've always fantasized about: the nation's largest desalination facility, 35 miles north of San Diego. But can the process ever really work they way they want it to? Los Angeles Times
Nor'easter parade: Hey, you know one reason it's so cold up in New England during the wintertime? Because it can get really, really windy up there, too. So if we're looking to cut the costs associated with heating homes. schools and businesses . . . well, just think about it for a minute. New York Times
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